The question should be (to me) is there a better defensive 4/5 combination than Young/Brand and honestly, if Speights (or hawes) gave a little bit of effort, I believe there is. I don't think Young is a good defensive player in general but he's just worse at the 4.

Honestly, I don't really see even a passable duo at the 4/5 defensively, so nothing is going to surprise or shock me. I keep reading about how Battie is a defensive presence. I guess if you're old and have a tough name people ignore things like production.

There is no one I look at in our front court that makes me say "This guy needs to see a lot of floor time." No one. I think Speights needs one on one time with the coaching staff more than minutes. He needs to prove growth in many areas before being given free reign to demonstrate it on the court. He'll just revert back to old habits otherwise. I actually think there will be a lot of fluxuation in minutes game to game between our bigs. The ones that prove to be able to play an effective and efficient two-man game with our guards will end up getting the most minutes. I think defensive effectiveness(or lack thereof) of our front court will be consistent due to scheme opposed to indivual performance.

Can you imagine if the Sixers beat them and they went 0-2? How much the media would latch on to that? I think I'd be pretty happy with the Sixers no matter what they did the rest of the season. We could all point back and say- Remember October 27th!

I've always liked Willie but I'd much rather see Meeks/Lou get his minutes.

And since we're talking shooting guards (maybe The Villian will be the next entry) and with all the worry over ET's rough Summer League performance I figured I'd share something. I was out in Avalon, New Jersey last Saturday with some people and I realized Tim Legler was standing next to us at the bar (The Princeton if anyone here goes to the shore). He's a pretty cool dude and he bought us some shots and I asked about Turner after I told him I was a 6ers fan. He said Turner would end up being the second best player in this draft class down the road behind Wall. When I asked him about Cousins he said he thought he'd play well enough for his rookie contract but when he signs a big deal after that he'll put on weight like a bear getting ready to hibernate. I forgot to ask him about Favors but still, even though Legler's no be-all end-all of basketball knowledge and he mighta been slightly inebriated (I definately was), it still was nice to hear someone express that kinda confidence in Evan Turner.

I'm sure nobody's going to read this considering how late it is from when this was posted but I'm going to say it anyway.

Brian, I can appreciate the fact that you're one of the few people in Philly who actually "gets" Iguodala but that doesn't mean I'm going to let you slander Willie Green like this.

I first saw Willie play as a rookie and was impressed as hell. He could jump out of the gym and pretty much lived around the rim. Then he got injured, and wasn't as athletic or explosive. The problem was that he didn't evolve the rest of his game to make up for it. This coupled with the fact that he wasn't productive if he wasn't starting made me sour on him. Last year, he put it all together and showed that he can be productive no matter how many or how few minutes he plays. He became a smart player and an efficient scorer, our best free-throw shooter. He became a solid defender. As somebody who plays basketball, I know and understand both what the right defensive stance is and how important it is. Willie Green always had the perfect defensive stance this year, and played some of the best defense out of any of the Sixers not named Holliday or Iguodala. I watched that Cleveland game. Willie infact was the reason LeBron had a hard time scoring on him. Willie played perfect defense on him on all but one play, the one where Willie took the wrong angle and LeBron blew past him. That was his only mistake.

Willie's problem always has and always will be his lack of a huge wingspan. It's what seperates a guy like Wade from other guys his height, like Green(okay Green's an inch shorter but still). If Green had Wade's wingspan, he would be starting over non-elite SGs in the league and would probably be a lockdown defender. Really, that's why he isn't a starter even after having a year like last year where he became a complete player and reached his potential, because his shorter wingspan makes him as much of a defensive liability at the 2 as Iverson's height made him.

Even with that lack of wingspan, Willie has proven that he could be the 6th man on many teams in this league. He is by no means a lame duck. Infact, if Willie was 6'6/6'7, he would be Evan Turner. They have the exact same type of body/physical gifts/feel for the game.

Sadly, because of Willie's lack of wingspan though, the only way he could ever start for any team and not be a potential defensive liability would be at PG. He plays great defense but the fact is that his wingspan is too small at his position to lock anybody down. He instead plays in your face defense with the perfect stance, and I'm not sure that would work 82 games a season as a starter at the two.

Put him at the 1 though and he's all of a sudden a guy who can shut point guards down with ease. He's smart enough to run the point as well. He'd be a very solid 1 on any team, especially with his ability to score.

Basically, Green's a guy who you pay based on how much you use him. If you start him, he's worth 5-8 million or so, as a 6th man 3-5 mill, and the further down the bech he goes, the quicker his salary would go down.

At the very least though, he's a solid guard who can play big minutes off the bench for a contender a la Tony Allen for the Celtics.